MAYA REBELLION

MAYA REBELLION Maya rebellion is one of the most dramatic episodes in the history of Mexico . It all started with the revolt of the native Maya people of Yucatan in Mexico against Yucatecos , basically white and Mestizo oppressors belonging to the European descent for political and economic control of the State . This revolt began in 1847 and in just a year 's time , Maya rebels were almost successful in throwing their oppressors from their peninsula . To understand about the Maya rebellion , it is necessary to have knowledge of Maya Civilization (Reed , The

Caste War of Yucatan , preface

Maya Civilization was considered to be most culturally dynamic society and densely populated . It is also known as Mesoamerican Civilization covering the areas from Tropic of Cancer in central Mexico , in South through the route of Guatemala , Belize , El Salvador , Western Honduras towards Pacific lowlands of Nicaragua to northwestern Costa Rica . After the Christopher Columbus discovered America in 1492 , America was occupied by Spain . The Spanish began their conquests of the Maya lands in 1520s . Initially , with small settlements they extended their empire to Central America , most of the parts of South America , Mexico and Southern and Central areas of United States (Wikipedia Encyclopedia Maya Civilization , pp .1

Under the Spanish rule , the Northern Yucatan was under the influence of number of small polities . The Spanish conquers also brought along them diseases which led to virtually reduce the Maya population . For the remaining Mayans , Spanish began to spread Catholicism and established European political system , but this was not fully successful , thus Spaniards removed most of the elite group of the Mayans or incorporated them into their colonial system , thus cowed down Maya-speaking rural peasants . Though , Spaniards had established administrative centers in 16th century at Merida in Yucatan , San Cristobal in Chiapas , and Antigua Guatemala in Guatemala , but they were all destroyed in a series of earthquakes in the 18th century , thus forcing Spaniards to shift their administrative center to Guatemala City

By the end of 1855 , the major battles were already over but these resulted in number of casualties , with more than half of the population either killed or fled the region . But the new religion was eventually built around Speaking Cross which gave support to their independence for complete fifty years (Reed , The Caste War of Yucatan , preface

There is no single cause which instigated the flames of the revolt . It was also thought that the revolt arose when three people of Maya decent were executed at Valladolid in Yucatan . According to historians , this was due to the uprising which was thought to be more for political purpose rather than a race war and after digging deep into the cause of the war it was found that the war occurred to protect the communal lands from the private owners ( Wikipedia Encyclopedia , Maya Civilization Background to the War , para 1 . The under privileged class were crushed under the atrocities of the upper classes . The Spanish Government changed the status of public lands which...